Bonsai Wednesday.

Tonight I knew Tony was busy and John did not have a tree to bring over, so I decided to do a re-wire on my Dawn Redwood.

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Before wiring I noticed the dead wood was in need of a clean. So I did this before I wired and gave it a coat of lime sulpher.

I was pleased with the wiring exercise as I only used 1mm and 1.5mm to do the entire job.

Which is a sign that the tree is almost done and all the branches are where they should be.

The dead wood looks much better as well.

Snow.

I keep seeing reports of snow all over the place.

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But up in the north of England we have loads of

Rain.

My trees are covered in it.

Natter night 28th January 2019.

On a cold damp night what do you do ?

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In my case I welcome visitors to my studio [ garage ] to work on and talk about Bonsai [and other things ] . Drink coffee and tea and have a laugh.

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Ken brought his twin trunk Larch to discuss it's future needed work.

Graham brought a pot and some small trees and some bogwood, which he wants to create a Penjing planting.

These two junipers will make a good start.

He also has a small Chinese Elm that can be incorporated into it.

But this will be done when the weather warms up in the Spring time.

Improvements.

I have added another improvement to the studio, to make life easier when doing Dremmel work.

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33 Drawers to keep all the bits and pieces in.

Now things will be easier to find.

Even a large drawer for my spare wire brushes.

More wood work.

I have been playing around in the studio today with some wood.

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Mame size stand.

Needs some coats of polish.

Bonsai Thursday.

Together at last.

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As I said in my last post, Dave and I were going to bring together a Juniper and a piece of Yew to create a Tanuki. Here is the image  that has been formed, it will now be cared for until we see some new growth before any more styling work is done.

The Juniper.

The Yew.

I love it when ideas work.

Bonsai Wednesday.

The banter tonight with Tony and John was very good, when they arrived I had set up a display in the studio.

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The display tree, they both had to look twice, before realizing it was a wind up.

My Berberis with some of the foliage cut off a Cedar on Monday night.

I was surprised they managed to get through all the snow we had, all 90 seconds of it.

We also had a look at this small Juniper.

Which is going to be partnered with this piece of deadwood.

Hopefully tomorrow when Dave come over.

Natter night 21st January 2019.

Last night was a bit busier than it has been lately, with three trees being brought along by their owners, Graham brought one and Ken brought two.

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Graham,s tree, a 42inch tall Cedar, needed a trim and some wire.

The tree had to be placed on a low turn table to be worked on.

Between us we managed to get a better looking image.

The final image.

Meanwhile Ken gave his Flowering Cherry a little trim.

Then turned his attention to his Larch.

All in all a really good night.

Berberis dead wood.

Here are some close up photos of the dead wood on my Berberis, just done a few days ago.

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Now I can concentrate on the foliage.

Berberis update.

I have been doing some more refinement work on my Berberis and think it is looking very good.I cannot wait for spring to see it full once more with foliage.

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This was before I started the other day.

Now after working on the dead wood.

Bonsai Wednesday.

Only John again tonight so I got my Berberis in to do a little refinement work on the deadwood.

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I shortened and thinned the tall Jin first,then created some hollows in the flat part in the center.

The whole of the deadwood was then given a coat of lime sulpher.

It still needs more work but looks much better for now.

Thanks for your help John.

Carving fun.

As Monday night was a little quiet we decided to have a bit of fun doing some carving.

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At the start, a chain saw and a piece of 3 by 2.

First piece carved, a nice bit of drift wood. Just needs the tree added.

Second, a new chopstick ,for teasing out the roots of trees.

An interesting night.

Bonsai Thursday.

Once again a good day with Dave, we discussed the Larch that I started last week,he liked very much what I had done with the image.

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The photo to the right of the tree is before It was styled.

Dave also had a good look at this Privet, to get some ideas of how it will be styled in the future.

Finally, another photo of a Mame Itoigawa,  with a lighter for size.

Bonsai Wednesday.

As Tony was busy with family, only John came tonight, he did bring a Crab apple that was air layered off a bigger tree, for some advice.

He wanted to know when the best time was to cut it back to promote better back buds.

I said to wait until spring when the tree shows signs of strong growth.

This is a mame size Itoigawa, which was a cutting from a few years ago.You can see the size better in the previous picture.

Starting to take shape now.

Natter night 7th January 2019.

The first natter night of 2019 and it was a very quiet night, with only Ken turning up, and even he did not bring anything to work on. So last week when Dave came over he noticed the bark on his Crab apple was breaking away from the trunk, so tonight I did a bit of exploring to see how far it had gone back.

After a clean up of the dead bark.

The other side.

Also after cleaning.

Even more interest in the trunk now.

Deadwood work.

I have had a busy day once more, but I did find a little time to do a bit of work on the deadwood on my Larch.

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A lot of refinement to do later.